Manage your subscription

Lobbying on asteroid threat finally pays off

By Duncan Graham-Rowe

THE international community is close to agreeing a strategy to combat the global threat of an asteroid hitting the Earth.

Last week, representatives from 30 governments met scientists to discuss what action, if any, is needed to deal with the threat. And for the first time, after decades of arguing and dithering, delegates spoke with one voice. “There is now a consensus that the threat is real and mainly comes from mid-sized objects,” says Lembit Opik, an amateur astronomer and British member of parliament, who attended the meeting held in Frascati, Italy.